Island



(No Model.) 7

R.'A. ROBERTSON,

PATTERN FOR PIPE JOINTS. No. 365,943. Patented July 5, 1,887.

FIG. 1. FIG. 2

N. PETERS, Phnwumagn hw. Washington-P11;

NITED STATES PATENT tries,

RICHARD A. ROBERTSON, JR, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

PATTERN FOR PIPE-JOINTS.

SEPECIPICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 365,943, dated July 5, 1887.

Application filed October 16, 1886. Serial No. 216,407. (No model.)

' To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RICHARD A. Ronnn'rson, J r., of Providence, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented cer lain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of PipeJoints or Special Gastings, and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to the manufacture of metal joints, such as are used for connecting water-pipes, and which are known in the trade as specials'or special castings, and my improvements consist in a multiform and interchangeable pattern for said castings having a central hollow sphere and a series of side patterns, the ends of which are adapted to be iitted at any place or places on the periphery of the sphere, all as more particularly hereinafter described and set forth.

Heretofore special castings have been made very long, in order to give room for the swing of the calkers hammer and to meet other conditions in their use. They have also been of great weight, on account of their length and the necessary thickness of flat or unstayed walls at the intersection of branches, particularly at the top and bottom of specials in which easy entrancecurves have been made.

For the manufacture of the ordinary forms of special castings a separate pattern and core; boX is required for every form. The multiplicity of these forms is such as to cause a great expense in their manufacture and consequently render them costly to purchasers. For the same reason-multiplicity of patterns and core-boXes-it is not profitable and hardly possible to make the ordinary special castings of different thicknesses to suit the varying thicknesses of ordinary pipes. The ordinary special castings have therefore always been suited to the heaviest grades of pipe, and they are consequentlyunnecessarilyheavy and thick forallthemediumandlightweights. Byfarthe greater number of the pipes used are of these latter grades, and the special castings are consequentl y in most cases wastefully heavy. By

my invention all these objections and difficulties are overcome. By placing bells on any or all openings niadein a hollow sphere ashort satisfactory casting is obtained free from the objections in use of short specials of the old form. When a hollow sphere (which is the strongest possible shape to resist bursting) is used for the body or largest part of my special, it may be made comparatively thin, and on this account, as well as by the short length of the entire casting, produce a strong special with comparatively little metal. Further, by the methods of manufacture as hereinafter described, I am able to produce special castings of varying Weights to suit the varying weights of plain pipes with which the specials .may be used, and so further produce a most economical casting with no waste metal.

By my invention I avoid the necessity for multiplicity of patterns and corc-boxes, for with a pattern for one hollow sphere and a few separate and loose nozzles, bells, or spigots I can produce any conceivable variation of angles, either vertical or horizontah'or any number or size of outlets, using the same hollow spherical pattern for the nucleus of each core-box, instead of having an entire and complete OOIB'bOX for every pattern. There are over six thousand of these combinations in ordinary demand, with no outlet larger than twenty-four inches diameter and suited for only one thickness of plain pipe. To produce all these castings would require more than six thousand patterns,and,possibly, more than nine thousand core-boxes, each of which patterns or core-boxes would cost as much as the one sphere-pattern or each of the ;forty nozzle-patterns required by my invention to produce any or all of the above-mentioned six thousand castings and other desirable eombinations, which it is not possible to produce otherwise. As a matter of economy in metal,

however, I vary the sizes of my spheres to 9 ICO with small outlets or nozzles would be unnecessarily large and heavy. For example, a

sphere that would be the appropriate size for a twenty-four-inch nozzle would be all out of proportion in size and weight if it were used with a four-inch nozzle. By a still further slight increase in the number of sphere-patterns-that is, of different thicknesses-I am able to produce any multiple of the above mentioned six thousand forms in varying shown in Fig. 4, Fig. 6 being the nowel half of the pattern on the mold-board, with the nozzle-patterns closely abutted to the spherepattern in such a way as to produce a casting like Fig. 4..

Similarletters represent like parts in all the figures.

Referring to Figs. 5 and 6, A is the hollow spherical body or nucleus of the pattern, and w a; x the patterns for making the bells, nozzles, or spigots. Any number of these loose pieces may be temporarily abutted to the surface of the sphere in any position on the moldboard, and the resulting casting may consequently be of any form as to size, nozzle, or feature.

The spherepattern A may have one or more holes from its periphery to its interior, through which may pass sand for the core rods or other supports for the coreitself. The patterns being hollow and of the right shape for the casting, they form a core-box as well as a pattern, and are of course movable andcan be placed in any combination. The patterns and core boxes are one, and what serves for the pattern on the outside forms the core-box on the inside, and to make the core, sand and rods must be passed through holes in the pattern, the rods supporting the sand. These rods are used and support the core in the ordinar manner in theman ufacture of the castings. he nozzle patterns being hollowed out and touching the sphere only at their eircumferences, the axial line of the outlet is always inevitably normal to the surface of the sphere. Each casting has an internal annular flange or lip, c, at the junction of the nozzles with the spherical body, against which the ends of the pipes, which are adapted to enter and be secured to said nozzles, may rest. The flanges 0 also prevent the ends of the pipes from entering into the spherical body of the casting and thus obstructing the interior of the same. By

virtue of the enlargement of the casting at the intersection of the branches, or, in other words, by the greater sectional area of the sphere over that of the line-pipe, the velocity of flow of water or other material passing through it is greatly reduced, and the loss of head by impact on the change of direction of fiowcorrespondingly reduced.

By my invention many desirable and economical forms of special castings not obtainable in any other way can be made-for instance, a reducer and branch combination, as shown in Fig. 2, the sectional area of the main pipe B not being reduced before the branch 0 is taken off, as is the case in ordinary forms.

In the old form of casting the diameter of the line or supply pipe B is materially reduced before the outlet to the branch pipe Ois reached.

For instance, if the diameter of the supplyare the following: The specials are made by the least expenditure of metal, the form rendering them at the same time strong, compact, and light. The hollow sphere, being in all parts in equilibrium under equal pressure in all directions, needs no staying or re-enforcementor additional metal to resist the strong pressure brought to bear on its interior surface.

A veryimportant advantage of my new casting ,is that on account of its form such a small number of partial patterns are required, and the interchangeability of these to produce any coneeivable form of special-virtually the production of any special without fixed patterns or core-boxes. By reason of the interchangeable parts of thepattern the power to produce similar shapes of varying thickness of body to suit pipes of different weights with which specials may be used is attained. By the placing of bells on all the openings, compactness, and the consequent avoidance of waste of the main pipe, is attained, for when a straight pipe is necessarily cut to place the special in a par-- ticular location, when the old forms of special are used, the pipe cut off is either thrown away, or it is necessary to use an extra casting in connection with it. By reason of the form of thecasting there is very little loss of head of the water or other material passing through it, which would take place if the casting were of the ordinary construction-that is, decreasing in diameter from its inlet to its branch outlet.

The method of making the casting is as follows: One'half of the pattern is laidin the flask on the mold-board K,with its open part down, and the parts are placed as desired. Sand is then piled and rammed on top of the pattern until it is level with the top of the nowel half of the flask. The whole flask, board, and sand,with pattern-is then turned over and the board taken off, leaving the inside of the pattern exposed. Sand that had fallen inside of the pattern is cleaned out, and the balance of the pattern is then placed on the half of the then put on and filled and ram med with sand-' that is, all around the outside of the upper half of the pattern. The top or cope part of the flask is then lifted off and the top half of the pattern taken out, leaving the core ex posed. The core is then lifted out and the lower half of the pattern taken out. Finally,

the core is laid back and rests on its bearings. The top half of the flask is then laid on and the metal poured in,which fills up the space which had been occupied by the pattern.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- 1. A multiform and interchangeable pattern for pipe-joints or special castings, consisting of a central hollow sphere and a series of side patterns of different sizes, the ends of which are adapted to be fitted at any place or places on the periphery of the sphere, all substantially as shown and described.

2. A inultiforrn and interchangeable pattern for pipe-joints or special castings, consisting of a central hollow sphere of uniform thickness throughout, and a series of side patterns of different sizes, the ends of which are adapted to be fitted at any place or places on the periphery of the sphere, all substantially as shown and described.

PENNINGTON HALSTED, 7 CHARLES F. BUTTERWORTH. 

